Message from a Graduate Student of the Graduate School of Economics

Since I graduated from the Faculty of Law, as a first-year master's student, I am currently taking core courses and mathematics classes intensively to learn the grammar of "Economics-speak." Specifically, in addition to micro and macroeconomics, I am studying the mathematics necessary for understanding economic theory and methodologies for empirical analysis. Because the Graduate School of Economics offers a wide range of subjects from introductory to advanced levels, I believe there is an environment where both people like me who start studying economics in earnest from graduate school and those who want to deepen their expertise can study with a curriculum that suits them.

Classes are two to three days a week, and on other days, I often work on research or research assistant duties at home. My research field is broadly "Law and Economics," and I am particularly interested in the utilization of personal information. For example, I am interested in how pricing based on individual purchase history and the judicial application of "crime risk" predicted from individual socio-demographic characteristics affect people and society. While there are concerns about the use of personal information, such as suppressing competition or exacerbating inequality, it is actually a context-dependent issue where there are "both good and bad cases." Therefore, while organizing what can and cannot be understood from theory, I am going through trial and error to demonstrate empirical findings from data.

Before entering, I had a prejudice against graduate school as a lonely place where one is immersed only in research. However, in reality, because there are fewer people than in undergraduate programs, there are many "familiar faces," and I feel it is a warm community where it is easy to find support and peers. The distance between professors and classmates has narrowed significantly, and the people I can consult with about research have expanded to include professors in charge of seminars and graduate students from other laboratories. Starting with my academic advisor, the professors respect graduate students as individual researchers, and since entering graduate school, I have felt the spirit of "learning while teaching, teaching while learning" even more strongly.

The purposes for going to graduate school are diverse, not limited to research, but also including preparation for entrepreneurship and career advancement. I believe another attraction of graduate school is that you can decide how to use your time more freely (even more so than in undergraduate programs) according to your individual goals.